Attack on tourists in Cairo in 1997
Coordinates: 30 ° 2 ′ 39.9 ″ N , 31 ° 14 ′ 8.5 ″ E
The attack on tourists in Cairo took place on September 18, 1997. Islamic terrorists carried out an attack on a tourist bus in Tahrir Square in front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo .
During the attack, the bus was shot at and set on fire with Molotov cocktails . Nine Germans and the Egyptian bus driver died and 26 other people were injured. Two of the three perpetrators were injured and arrested in a twenty-minute exchange of fire with Egyptian security forces, and a third was picked up near the scene of the attack.
The tourists belonged to a tour group from the seaside resort of Hurghada , which went on a trip to Cairo that day. After visiting the museum, part of the group was already on board, others were still in the museum or on their way to the bus. The Egyptian authorities identified two of the perpetrators as Saber Mohammed Farhat Abu el-Ulla and his brother Mahmoud. The two were sentenced to death by a military court in Cairo on October 30, 1997 and executed on May 24, 1998.